Recently I listened to a debate between the philosopher and theologian A. Plantinga and the atheist philosopher D. Dennett. It can be easily found in You Tube.
I only want to make one comment about something Plantinga said in Part 2 of the debate. In there he seemed to support (much to my surprise) Behe's idea (explained in his last book) of considering plasmodium, the parasite that causes Malaria, an irreducible complexity. The fact that Behe hasn't shown any scientific evidence so far about any of the affirmations he confidently proclaims, and the fact that his arguments seem to be flawed even from the theological (specifically christian) point of view, makes me wonder what Plantinga is really doing by appealing to Behe's ideas in his search for a solution to the problem of science, naturalism, religion and faith. I would've thought a philosopher of the calibre of Plantinga wouldn't have needed to use Behe's flawed arguments (nor any of the ID proponents's) to support the claim that evolution and theism are not incompatible. The fact that he does, makes me wonder whether perhaps he might be in favour of such ID theories. If this is so, I would expect him to read a bit more about it before stating such positive affirmations about them. He can start with Kenneth R. Miller's books, in which he exposes the numerous problems with Behe's (and other ID proponents's) arguments.
To confirm the impression I got in Part 2, Part 3 shows Plantinga talking about the problems that complexities at the molecular level pose to evolutionary theory (remiscient of the vocabulary used by Behe and other ID proponents in their books). This is, in my opinion, quite worrying (for christians). If the only way that christian philosophers and theologians have to give God a place in the evolutionary process is by appealing to 'irreducible complexities', we are indeed doomed. I would've expected a more serious attempt, on Plantinga's side, to answer some of the serious questions posed by evolutionary atheists. In this occasion Dennett had it, I think, too easy...
14/03/2009
05/03/2009
Rescuing Darwin
This is an interesting report, by Nick Spencer and Denis Alexander, about Darwin and evolution from a christian perspective:
http://campaigndirector.moodia.com/Client/Theos/Files/RescuingDarwin.pdf
"The project is managed and run by Theos, the public theology think tank, in partnership with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion", says in the first page. In page 9 we read:
"In 2009, the evidence for evolution by natural selection is overwhelming, although of course the theory itself continues to evolve as new data come to light. The fossil record, although incomplete, firmly supports the theory, revealing impressive series of transitional forms. More recently, advances in genetics have hugely strengthened evolution, to the extent that, in scientific circles at least, it is now incontestable".
It's certainly refreshing to read christians saying that.
I warn you: the document is 72 pages long, but from what I've read so far it seems pretty sound. I wish all christians spent some time reading it - although I don't expect that any kind of evidence will convince any fundamentalist christian. Why the negativity? Keep reading...
"According to a recent, detailed quantitative research study commissioned by Theos and conducted by the polling company ComRes, only 37% of people in the UK believe that Darwin's theory of evolution is 'beyond reasonable doubt'. 32% say that Young Earth Creationism ("the idea that God created the world sometime in the last 10,000 years") is either definitely or probably true, and 51% say that Intelligent Design ("the idea that evolution alone is not enough to explain the complex structures of some living things, so the intervention of a designer is needed in key stages") is either definitely or probably true".
If scientists (and anyone who has the energy and the time to read the relevant literature) would agree that "the evidence for evolution by natural selection is overwhelming", then what is wrong with some christians?
I encourage you to read this document. It might come useful sometime...
http://campaigndirector.moodia.com/Client/Theos/Files/RescuingDarwin.pdf
"The project is managed and run by Theos, the public theology think tank, in partnership with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion", says in the first page. In page 9 we read:
"In 2009, the evidence for evolution by natural selection is overwhelming, although of course the theory itself continues to evolve as new data come to light. The fossil record, although incomplete, firmly supports the theory, revealing impressive series of transitional forms. More recently, advances in genetics have hugely strengthened evolution, to the extent that, in scientific circles at least, it is now incontestable".
It's certainly refreshing to read christians saying that.
I warn you: the document is 72 pages long, but from what I've read so far it seems pretty sound. I wish all christians spent some time reading it - although I don't expect that any kind of evidence will convince any fundamentalist christian. Why the negativity? Keep reading...
"According to a recent, detailed quantitative research study commissioned by Theos and conducted by the polling company ComRes, only 37% of people in the UK believe that Darwin's theory of evolution is 'beyond reasonable doubt'. 32% say that Young Earth Creationism ("the idea that God created the world sometime in the last 10,000 years") is either definitely or probably true, and 51% say that Intelligent Design ("the idea that evolution alone is not enough to explain the complex structures of some living things, so the intervention of a designer is needed in key stages") is either definitely or probably true".
If scientists (and anyone who has the energy and the time to read the relevant literature) would agree that "the evidence for evolution by natural selection is overwhelming", then what is wrong with some christians?
I encourage you to read this document. It might come useful sometime...
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